Grant Bollmer
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grantbollmer.bsky.social
Grant Bollmer
@grantbollmer.bsky.social
I teach about digital media and have written some books that are also ostensibly about digital media.

http://grantbollmer.com
Now, if you DO want a more academic evaluation of the book, here's a great review of it in @ijoc-usc.bsky.social by Oscar Gómez Pascual, who I feel really gets what the book is going for!
Grant Bollmer and Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory: A Marxist Theory of Corporate Personhood on YouTube | International Journal of Communication
ijoc.org
October 25, 2025 at 6:48 PM
It genuinely surprises me when there's some reference to the Influencer Factory out there from actual influencers and content creators - but here it is, discussed at length in a video essay by the Ashley Embers!
Is this the end of the influencer economy?
YouTube video by Ashley Embers
www.youtube.com
October 25, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
The lowest share of Americans ever view capitalism positively and big business rates even worse in new Gallup data released today.
Americans give capitalism its lowest ever rating in new Gallup survey
A slim majority of Americans rate capitalism positively.
www.axios.com
September 8, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
THERE IS STILL TIME TO ENJOY SUP'S SUMMER SALE!

Take advantage of 50% off of all in-stock print and ebooks sitewide* now through Monday, 9/8. Whether by the pool or in the shade, we'd love to be your last summer read.

www.sup.org/about-our-en...
September 5, 2025 at 6:09 PM
You can pick up "The Influencer Factory" for just $14! A book novelist and media strategist Andrew Ladd has said, "I feel like this is how nineteenth century proletarians must have felt reading Marx"! (And our book seems to be more popular among actual influencers than the academics who study them!)
WE'RE HAVING AN END OF SUMMER SALE! The weather may be cooling, but SUP's end of summer sale is hot!

Take advantage of 50% off of all in-stock print and ebooks sitewide starting today, 8/25, through 9/8. #ReadUP

www.sup.org/about-our-en...
August 26, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
WE'RE HAVING AN END OF SUMMER SALE! The weather may be cooling, but SUP's end of summer sale is hot!

Take advantage of 50% off of all in-stock print and ebooks sitewide starting today, 8/25, through 9/8. #ReadUP

www.sup.org/about-our-en...
August 25, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Every single one of mine is in there, as well!
every single one of my books are in there, including the newest one published two years ago. am furious.

y’all, i know you may be busy or at worldcon but take the time to look up yourself today. the ability to apply for the class action suit ends tonight!
"If your books were uploaded to LibGen/fed into the LLMs, add your name to the potential class action lawsuit by tomorrow." Details:

LibDem database: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Attorney form: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...

(This information comes via a reliable Discord source.)
August 14, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
I got a flu booster today and it made me reflect on the sense of national accomplishment I felt when I drove to a public facility, waited in my car until my number was called on an app, and got my first covid jab. It's fucked the right gets to erase what a moment of technological liberation that was
August 10, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
Joseph Weizenbaum in 1975: "The very asking of the question, 'What does a judge (or psychiatrist) know that we cannot tell a computer?' is a monstrous obscenity. That it has to be put into print at all, even for the purpose of exposing its morbidity, is a sign of the madness of our times." #ai
July 31, 2025 at 10:01 PM
In case anyone happens to be in Korea next weekend, I'm going to be presenting at the Nam June Paik Art Center's "48-hour NJP School" on the 19th - the entire event looks exceptionally cool, and I'm very excited to be part of it! njpart.ggcf.kr/events/250
48-hour NJP School
48-hour NJP School
njpart.ggcf.kr
July 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
We have an amazing sale going on at the University of Minnesota Press this week... stock on summer reading with $10 paperbacks presswide when you buy 3 or more and use checkout code MN93820!

Wondering where to start? Check out this 🧵 for some starter packs to unlock $10 books:
June 23, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
Finally, a Holy War I can join
June 19, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
Every future imagined by a tech company is worse than the previous iteration.
June 7, 2025 at 11:22 AM
It seems the best responses to The Influencer Factory so far have come from people who either are influencers themselves or are really invested in influencers, and not even remotely academic, which is genuinely shocking to me.
From the emergencyintercom community on Reddit: Elisa’s Insta Story
Explore this post and more from the emergencyintercom community
www.reddit.com
April 7, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Just got in the mail today the absolutely gorgeous Korean translation of Materialist Media Theory! Thanks to Sungyong Ahn for sending it along!
April 7, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
New in Social Media + Society ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Bollmer, G., & Tillerson, B. (2025). Platform Fandom: Weverse and the Technological Domestication of Fan Community

#FanStudies

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Platform Fandom: Weverse and the Technological Domestication of Fan Community - Grant Bollmer, Bethany Tillerson, 2025
This article is a critical examination of the social media platform Weverse and its associated e-commerce platform Weverse Shop, platforms developed and operate...
journals.sagepub.com
April 7, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
It’s day 2 in the book exhibit at #SCMS25 #SCMS2025! Stop by and see us @uminnpress.bsky.social or check out our online exhibit at www.upress.umn.edu/scms25/ for 30% off!
Conference sale: Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2025 - University of Minnesota Press
Books on sale during the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies in Chicago. Books featured in this collection are 30% off when
www.upress.umn.edu
April 5, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Checked out the #scms25 book room - you can pick up The Affect Lab from @uminnpress.bsky.social but The Influencer Factory has already been accounted for! @stanfordpress.bsky.social
April 4, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Perhaps you don't want to hear anything about the American tech industry and Silicon Valley--well, can I interest you in this brand new article which I coauthored with a former undergrad student at NC State, on the Korean media platform Weverse and the political economy of K-pop fandom!
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
April 4, 2025 at 1:27 PM
If you're at #SCMS25 and want to hear some papers about how terrible the tech industry is, how it's going to destroy the world, etc. etc., then head over to the Fairmont Crystal room today at 2:15!
April 4, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
What people in every part of higher education need to understand is that Republicans now want to do to universities what they’ve tried to do to labor unions: erase them from the institutional landscape. The question is how much you want to collaborate in your own destruction.
March 27, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
“The scariest words in the English language are ‘I’m from the private sector and I’m here to maximize efficiency.’”
March 7, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
And a few College Art Association authors have already stopped by our booth! Below are Grant Bollmer and Katherine Guinness with their @stanfordpress.bsky.social book, Influencer Factory, followed by Serena Keshavjee and her University of Manitoba Press book, The Art of Ectoplasm. #CAA2025
February 13, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
"If you want a labor force, a regulatory bureaucracy, or accountability to disappear, you simply say, 'AI can do it.' Then, the conversation shifts from explaining why these things should or should not go away to questions about how AI would work in their place." - @eryk.bsky.social
Anatomy of an AI Coup | TechPolicy.Press
DOGE is gutting federal agencies to install AI across the government. Democracy is on the line, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Eryk Salvaggio.
www.techpolicy.press
February 10, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Reposted by Grant Bollmer
Endowment tax + slashing overhead on federal grants is designed to cripple the university. This weakened university is going to be even more susceptible to the efficiency claims of genAI. All of these moves further concentrate wealth and power in the private sector. Don't capitulate in advance.
February 8, 2025 at 1:38 PM